Puffing in the 2011 Playoffs—Where to Smoke A Cigar in Baseball’s Postseason

Cigar Aficionado's guide to where you can smoke in MLB’s playoff cities.

How
does the saying go? “It doesn’t matter how you start, it’s how you
finish.” Well, that’s true, but the other thing is that “every game
counts,” even the ones in April. The Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox
each started out 0-6. If Boston had won only one of those... Same goes for
the Atlanta Braves who clearly wish all-star catcher Brian McCann had
not been injured those couple of weeks. Whatever. The regular season is
162 games. Every team has significant injuries. Win as many as you can,
whenever you can.

The
Braves were ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Wild Card race by
eight-and-a-half games at the beginning of September. On the last day of
the regular season, the Braves lose a heartbreaker to baseball’s best
Philadelphia Phillies. St. Louis thumps the league’s worst team, the
Houston Astros, and are in the playoffs. The Red Sox were up nine over
the Rays for the AL Wild Card spot.

On the last night of the regular season, the tables finished turning. Call them collapses if you like. Everything changed.

The
very bad Baltimore Orioles beat the Sox, scoring two in the bottom of
the ninth with two out. Tampa Bay went down 7-0 to the Yankees and then
scored six in the eighth and pinch-hitter Dan Johnson hit the tying
homer in the ninth with two outs and two strikes. Evan Longoria of the
Rays then hit a walk-off homer in the 12th. The day before, Tampa had
turned a triple play to stay in the game and eventually win.

That’s baseball. Ya gotta play ‘em all.

THE THEME OF MLB 2011

My
cousin asked me the other day, before the last day of the season, “What
could be done to make baseball games more exciting?” I told him that I
don’t think the game needs to go extreme. I do think that, in addition
to the Baltimore Orioles returning permanently to the “Happy Bird” logo,
a few adjustments are needed. Use the 40-man roster, but make only 25
players eligible at any given game. Too many pitching changes slow
things down tremendously.

Just
to pick up where I left you at the end of last season, baseball still
needs instant replay in a big way. I still believe that would not only
improve the accuracy of the calls, but ultimately speed up the game.
Will that make baseball more exciting to the casual fan? Maybe not. I
don’t really care. I think baseball appeals to more types of people than
does, say, football. I love—love!—baseball. I would happily watch every
game of the year in the MLB Fan Cave. My favorite sport to watch,
however, is hockey.

That’s
another one that seems a little too complex or inaccessible for many,
even though it’s about as fast a sport as you’ll find. Having played
both—and basically sucked at both—gives me insights to how difficult
playing these sports really can be. And I know that in baseball,
there’s always something happening every pitch even if the casual fan
can’t see it.

This
year, what seemed to be happening on every baseball sports show was a
discussion of how to measure player performance. The latest, greatest
statistic that baseball’s world of metrics has popularized is “WAR.” The
acronym stands for “wins above replacement.”

Simply,
WAR seeks to measure the value of a starting player against the likely
less-expensive replacement that could be found. So, for example, Matt
Kemp, the LA Dodgers center fielder, is having a career year and with
five games left had a WAR ranking of about 9.6, the highest in baseball
this year. By comparison, Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers left fielder
and Kemp’s main rival for the NL MVP this year, has a WAR ranking of
7.2, even though Braun’s team has clinched its division’s crown,
something that the Brewers probably wouldn’t have done without Braun’s
performance. For reference, in 2004, Barry Bonds had a WAR of 12.4.

In
the AL, even though Curtis Granderson of the Yankees is my narrow
winner for MVP, his WAR is about 7. Jose “Joey Bats” Bautista, Toronto’s
slugger, is at 8.2, and Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury, also an MVP favorite,
ranks 8.5, with his teammate Dustin Pedroia at 7.3.

WAR
is designed to be able to have one statistic, admittedly comprised of
numerous other statistics, define the value of a player. (If you want to
know how WAR is calculated, Google “MLB WAR.”) The focus on WAR during
all the baseball talk shows is appropriate if you want to get down to
one number. It’s one of those tools that tells you little about a team
game, unless maybe you’ve got the top 10 players by WAR ranking on one
team, including four pitchers. Don’t even get me started on WHIP.

THE SEASON

The
2011 season started with a San Francisco Giants fan on opening day in
Los Angeles getting beaten into a coma by two erstwhile Dodgers “fans”
who reportedly have stronger ties to some local gang. The Dodgers’
season was ending with a surprisingly strong finish on the field and a
thoroughly embarrassing procession in bankruptcy court where MLB has
asked a judge to force parking-lot magnate Frank McCourt to sell the
team. The best single stat to measure McCourt’s impact on the Dodgers is
“PAOFITS,” or “paid-attendance-over-fans-in-the-stands.”

View from Camacho Cigar Bar inside the Detroit Tiger's Comerica Park.

Basically,
by the end of the season, about half the fans who had paid for tickets
were going to the stadium to see Kemp try to become the first Triple
Crown winner since 1967. His teammate, Clayton Kershaw, looks likely to
win the Cy Young this year, with his own pitching triple crown. Kershaw
is tied for most wins (21), lowest ERA (2.28) and most strikeouts (248).

The
2011 season was also about injuries, perhaps the most prominent of
which was Buster Posey’s torn ligaments and broken left ankle. Posey,
the catcher and key to the San Francisco Giants’ World Series win last
year, was playing against the Florida Marlins when Scott Cousins,
attempting to score on a sacrifice fly, collided with Posey, who was
trying to block the plate. Posey fell back awkwardly and Cousins scored.
Posey was out for the season. The Giants also suffered from injuries to
their closer Brian Wilson.

Other
prominent injuries included Alex Rodriguez, who will not hit 30 home
runs for the first time since 1997, his third year in the league. More
recently, most of the starting rotation for the Boston Red Sox was
beaten up, leaving the team to rely on the Baltimore Orioles to beat up
on the Tampa Bay Rays, the team that challenged the BoSox for the Wild Card.

The
Atlanta Braves, impressive all year, also started to fold towards the
end as the St. Louis Cardinals pressed for the Wild Card spot. Do we
even need to talk about the “first to worst” Minnesota Twins? We should
talk about the “worst to first” Arizona Diamondbacks.

As
always, there were some amazing plays made by players you’d never heard
of (Ben Revere, Roger Bernadina, Adam Jones, Sam Fuld) and a lot of
unbelievable ones made by Cleveland Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera,
who also set a team record this year for homers by a Tribe shortstop.
Cabrera made the behind-the-back flip to second his own, while just
about everybody, most notably Cincinnati’s “Mr. Personality,” second
baseman Brandon Phillips, made a glove flip to first between the legs.

A
notable accomplishment was Mariano Rivera breaking Trevor Hoffman’s
save record. And congratulations to Derek Jeter for becoming the first
Yankees player to get 3,000 hits, and to Jim Thome for passing the 600
home run mark.

And
finally, can we say goodbye forever to Manny Ramirez? And maybe Carlos
Zambrano? A question all to itself: What is up with Nyjer Morgan?

The
year ends with big question marks about two certified superstars and
where they will end up next season. Albert Pujols, who, despite injuries
early in the year, still hit .300 with 37 dingers, was in the last year
of his contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. Prince Fielder, the
Brewers first baseman, is a little younger and has a slightly lower
average than Pujols, and has already said this is likely his last year
in Milwaukee. The interesting stat to look for in both cases is the
dollars each will get as a free agent.

For
me, 2011 was a season mostly focused on baseball’s sometimes amusing
ownership issues. Of course, the stadium closest to me is in Chavez
Ravine. In addition to the Dodgers, the Mets are in the most dire
financial straits. There are too many teams and not enough major-league
talent. That, I think, was made clearest in Houston as Drayton McLane
tries to sell the Astros to controversial businessman Jim Crane for $680
million, the second-highest price for a major league team. Whether MLB
will approve the sale remains a question. The biggest concern,
reportedly that $300 million of the deal would be debt-financed, is that
Crane would become another Frank McCourt. Anyone got Mark Cuban’s phone
number?

THE PLAYOFFS

The
last week of the regular season might indeed prove more exciting than
any playoffs. The wild finishes in the Wild Card races make the
match-ups in the postseason a lot more interesting than they appeared to
be a month earlier.

Here’s
who’s going to play who in the first round of the playoffs and who’s
going to win each round. A lot of my picks are based largely on how
teams are playing now, not their head-to-head records.

AMERICAN LEAGUE PREDICTIONS

Oy.
The Yankees. Again? The Bombers, with the league’s best record, will
play the Detroit Tigers, a team that hits the ball well and pitches
better. This one begins in the Bronx and I figure about three rain
delays in the series. That benefits the Yankees because they could then
pitch C.C. Sabathia and Iván Nova in all four games needed to win.

The
Tigers boast Justin Verlander, a lock on this year’s Cy Young in the AL
and late-season acquisition Doug Fister, an impressive number two
starter. The Tigers also have baseball’s best closer, Jose Valverde, who
notched 49 saves without blowing one this year. I pick the Tigers in
five.

The
Texas Rangers begin at home against the charging Rays. Tampa probably
has the best starting pitching of the four teams in the AL playoffs, but
the arms are a little worn. Texas just crushes the ball against anyone.
The Rangers want to get back to the World Series and avenge last year’s
defeat to the Giants. I see the Rangers moving on, deflating the Rays
in four. After that, I have the Rangers moving on to the championship.

NATIONAL LEAGUE PREDICTIONS

The
Phillies. That’s about all you need to say. Unless you also want to say
the Brewers. Philadelphia has all that pitching and all that hitting
and played like the “cheese” they put on cheese steaks down the stretch.
You know? Like crap. The hitting that did not show up against the
Giants last year was again not showing up in the last 10 games of the
year. The Phils starters are pretty much healthy and they’ve added right
fielder Hunter Pence, who has apparently brought some fire to the team.

Philadelphia
will play the surprising wild-Cardinals. Philly will throw Roy
Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and, maybe, Roy Oswalt at the redbirds.
Phenom Vance Worley goes to the bullpen as the long-reliever. Then
there’s still Joe Blanton and closer Ryan Madson. They’ll be facing
Pujols, Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday, always fearsome bats, with the
addition of Rafael Furcal at short and leadoff adding a dimension the
Cards had missed most of the year. Still, the Fightins move on.

The only official Cigar Aficionado lounge in the world, inside New York's Cigar Inn.

The
Arizona Diamondbacks, who won the relatively weak west in Kirk Gibson’s
rookie year as manager, get the misfortune of facing the Milwaukee
Brewers. Arizona also saw the emergence of Justin Upton as a star and
benefitted from a solid enough year from centerfielder Chris Young.
Aaron Hill was a late season acquisition from Toronto and is helping
fill holes in the lineup. Ian Kennedy, a former Yankees pitcher, won 21
games as a starter.

Milwaukee
has surprisingly good pitching this year, with Yovani Gallardo, Zack
Greinke, Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf. Milwaukee has John Axford closing
games, being set up by Frankie “K-Rod” Rodriguez, who seems to find ways
to say or do the wrong thing at the worst time every year. Milwaukee,
whose hitting has been inconsistent beyond Braun and Fielder most of the
year, will score enough against a Snakes pitching staff with a combined
3.78 ERA. That’s not much worse than Milwaukee’s at 3.64, but it’s
enough of a difference.

I think the Crew win this round easily over Arizona, then falls to Philadelphia in the NLDS.

THE WORLD SERIES

In
a Texas-Philadelphia matchup, I’m picking the Rangers. The
much-improved bullpen guides me to that selection. Also, the Rangers
hit. I mean, they really hit. Philly can hit, but doesn’t always do so.
Of course, the Phillies have the best pitching in baseball and that was
the same challenge the Rangers faced last year. Still, Texas crushes the
ball. Did I mention that?

Where to Smoke a Cigar in the Playoff Cities

While
I will be watching the games at home and enjoying fine cigars and
beverages, here’s where to catch a puff if you go to the games.

New
York City still ranks number one in places to enjoy a cigar. If you’re
going to Texas, check out other possibilities in Dallas and Fort Worth.
In Detroit, the stadium has a cigar bar in it, a few good places in the
city, and Windsor, Ontario, where you can go buy and smoke (outdoors) a
Cuban cigar, is just across the river. Tropicana Field, where the Rays
play, is the worst stadium in baseball, but has a cigar bar in it. Without further delay, here’s the list of my recommended places.

May I also make a shamless plug for Cigar Masters in Worcester MA as a great place to watch a game (even though the Red Sox broke our hearts)?

Chris HomanColdwater, OH, USA, September 30, 2011 7:49am ET

I'll be watching playoff baseball from the comfort of my own home, with good cigars and scotch on hand, being that my team didn't make it. I really don't care who wins, as long as it's not the Yankees. The only team in professional sports that I loathe more is the Green Bay Packers.

David Savona September 30, 2011 9:43am ET

Funny Arthur, all my friends who are Red Sox fans have shown zero interest in watching the playoffs this year. And Chris, why all the Yankee hatred?

Alex BenesNewbury Park, CA, USA, September 30, 2011 2:21pm ET

Watching from home is the best, really. I turn my screen towards the porch and look through the glass door. I light a big cigar and pour a huge glass of rum and sit back. It's always good weather here!

Chris HomanColdwater, OH, USA, September 30, 2011 5:58pm ET

David,

I've just never liked the Yankees, and them winninng everything under the sun, going out an dspending money on big-name guys, and having the sports media ramming them down my throat every day gets really old. I know there's a lot of history there, and i can appreciate that, but I just can't stand the Yankees.

David WisniewskiPennsauken, NJ, USA, October 1, 2011 8:19pm ET

Total agreement with your view on the Yankees, but I want to see them represent the AL, so, the Phils can put those cry babys and their bandwagon fans in their place, once and for all.